Seen and heard at NACDA; Charlie Baker lays out his vision; NHL lands big $1B deal on Senators and MLS makes key hire to aid clubs on the business side
My home state of North Carolina will become the latest state to approve legalized sports betting as Governor Roy Cooper will sign the sports wagering horse race wagering bill on Wednesday at 10:00 at the Spectrum Center that will allow people to begin placing bets in North Carolina early next year. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, June 14th. Good morning, I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for joining the Buzzcast. I saw a lot of friends at the NACDA Convention in Orlando and SBJ programmed a morning session where my colleague John Ourand and I talked about a couple of different key issues in sports business. First, we talked about operating a professional sports organization with Orlando Magic CEO, Alex Martins. We talked sports betting with PGA Tour Vice President Scott Warfield who said, of course, everybody is eyeing what happens next in the big states of California, Florida, and Texas.
But he was also optimistic and encouraged by what's happening in North Carolina and keeping his eye on Georgia and South Carolina as he believes those could be big states as well. We talked about the growing capital supporting women's sports with Donna Orender and we talked about using data and analytics to grow your business with the Heat's Matthew Jafarian, who was fresh off watching his team play in the NBA finals and lose. But as he said, he felt the Heat were playing with house money. One other item I took away from the conversation there is great elasticity in ticket pricing. Alex Martins said all of the Magic's premium products are sold out and that the team had its best revenue year ever. Jafarian acknowledged that the Heat is also looking at pricing because they still see a long runway when it comes to maximizing revenue. So a very insightful morning at NACDA.
I was disappointed to miss the keynote late yesterday afternoon as new NCAA President, Charlie Baker really made his first appearance in front of many college leaders, and he outlined a few interesting things. First, he sent a roadmap for a revamped NCAA and NCAA office will probably be done in July next month. That is a bit earlier than I would've anticipated. He addressed the possibilities that athletes could be redefined to employees rather than students. Remember that is in the courts right now. He followed that up by saying he has not met one athlete that wants to be designated as an employee. Baker said he is committed to creating a common name, image, and likeness contract that looks the same for each athlete that does a deal. He said transparency is fundamental to name, image, and likeness. And he also said he's been out a lot. He has spoken to about 80 conferences or gatherings in his first 104 days as the new NCAA president.
Finally, he said that college leaders have a lot of work to do. He said, "College sports has some serious issues that we need to address and deal with, and no one is going to do it for us." I will say in the many conversations I had at NACDA with athletic directors and college leaders in the hallways and outside of the meeting rooms, they have all been very pleased so far with Charlie Baker. They find him likable and very approachable. So that is a little different tenure coming from the NCAA.
Let's move on. We have been talking about the sale of the Ottawa Senators for months now. And loyal listeners of the bus cast will know that we've wondered if the sale of the Senators could hit a billion dollars in US funds, which I felt would be a huge accomplishment for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, the NHL, and it would prove the increasing valuations of sports teams would just continue.
Well, it seems that the NHL has hit pay dirt as Toronto billionaire Michael Andlauer has a bid to buy the Senators believed to be worth a billion dollars, all figures us that looks closer to being completed. There is a deal in principle, the deal is being handled by Galatioto Sports Partners out of New York and the estate of the late Eugene Melnyk sources said that the NHL, like Andlauer's vision for the city, his plans for the team and the team's brand and the ability of his family to try to help bring a Stanley Cup to Ottawa. Now, Andlauer is a hockey lover. He loves the game. Apparently, he is a beer league goalie. He was a co-owner of an AHL team, the Hamilton Bulldogs. He then became a part owner of the Montreal Canadians. Other NHL owners know him well as he sits on the NHLs Board of Governors as an alternate governor for the Canadians.
Like I said, he is known to love the game. I can imagine this deal gets approved easily. Now, his background is in logistics. He founded the Andlauer Healthcare Group, which is a supply chain management company, which offers logistics and specialized transportation for healthcare. So his money came and third-party logistics and transportation around healthcare. He also founded a merchant bank focused on private equity investments and advisory services. So Michael Andlauer, Toronto billionaire close to landing the Ottawa Senators.
Shifting to baseball a very odd day for the Oakland A's franchise on Tuesday. Early in the day, the Nevada Senate passed up to $380 million in public funding for the proposed A's ballpark in Las Vegas off the strip. Now the Senate passed it. The bill goes to the House assembly. The Senate passage was a critical step towards the team's possible relocation to Las Vegas. The assembly is expected to take up the legislation today on Wednesday, and if approved, it will go to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, who had said he would sign the original bill. Now the original bill has been amended, so we'll see how the governor reacts. But right now, this bill is moving through the Nevada State House.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday night in Oakland in what was intended to be a show of local support, Oakland fans held a reverse boycott. They wanted to fill Oakland Coliseum. It was intended as a protest of John Fisher's ownership group and the ownership of the A's they urged Fisher to sell the team to someone who would keep them in Oakland. So a little bizarre that happened Tuesday night, earlier in the day, Nevada passed forward the bill for funding for a ballpark. Now the game did draw almost 28,000 fans. That was the largest home attendance of the season. It's more than triple the team's home average of 8,500 fans. And the previous high was on opening day with 26,000 fans. So they did show up, but whether or not they can stop the A's from relocating to Las Vegas, seriously in doubt.
One of the most successful divisions that was created under the late NBA commissioner David Stern, was establishing a division called NBA TMBO. That is a centralized team services division. It is in the NBA league office. This was years ahead of its time. And a number of smart executives would be part of TMBO and assist all the NBA teams in optimizing their business. Like I said, this was ahead of its time. So many leagues have had their own vision of TMBO since then. Not exactly copying it like the NBAs but putting their own take on it.
So here comes Major League Soccer as the league has brought on a very experienced team operator to lead a new division. So former Ilitch Sports and Entertainment President, Chris McGowan will lead MLS's new club performance group. And that is intended just as it sounds, its focus is on helping clubs maximize their business performance. Now, McGowan's title is Executive Vice President and Chief Club Performance Officer. He'll report directly to Don Garber. He'll serve as a point of contact at the league office for owners and CEOs and presidents at the club. And this shows the priority that Garber and the league are putting on this division. Now, Chris McGowan plans to hire around 10 people for the new department in areas such as ticketing and sponsorship marketing and fan experience. Now remember Chris McGowan also ran the Portland Trail Blazers. He knows how TMBO operates, and he said it will be in that model, but not as big and as he said, not as robust.
But there is a real desire to get all the MLS teams up to a consistent performance level on the business side, you have some very strong performers. I put LAFC there, certainly Atlanta, certainly Seattle, Portland. I'd put the newer clubs, Austin, and Charlotte at that level. But the goal is to get all others up to that level. So they need stronger tickets and stronger sponsorship sales. And that's where McGowan will have his focus and be held accountable in this new division. And staying with executives. I know my colleague David Albright talked about it yesterday on the Buzzcast, but there is a lot of talk about the changes at Comcast Spectacor as Valerie Camillo, President and CEO of Spectacor Sports and Entertainment will leave the organization at the end of the month. Now, Valerie Camillo had held a very high-profile post at the company for the last five years.
She is well regarded. She headed up business operations for the flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, and she was also overseeing the $350 million renovation of Wells Fargo Center. So that was a big project, but there have been a lot of changes at this organization in the last few months. There's a new leader, there's all new hockey operations leadership, so a lot of new faces at Spectacor, and so she moves on. Meanwhile, they have promoted Blair Listino, an SBJ game changer. She'll serve as chief administration and financial officer. Todd Glickman has been named chief revenue officer and John Master has been promoted to chief legal and strategy officer. So the bottom line is a number of changes on the business and player personnel side at Comcast Spectacor Sports Group. And there will be a lot of speculation of where Val Camillo goes next as she has been a successful team operator who has led some significant projects and initiatives at both the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Flyers and Wells Fargo Center. So a lot of people will be keeping their eye on what she does next.
And so that is your Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday, June 14th. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. Thanks for sharing the word on the Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.